


Happy Halloween

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25906948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: Christmas is, without question, Parker’s favorite holiday.  There are presents and sparkly things and cookies.  There isn’t much not to like, to be perfectly honest.  The elf costumes are just a bonus.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23
Collections: The Leverage Exchange Master Collection





	Happy Halloween

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurora_chiroptera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurora_chiroptera/gifts).



Christmas is, without question, Parker’s favorite holiday. There are presents and sparkly things and cookies. There isn’t much not to like, to be perfectly honest. The elf costumes are just a bonus.

Second on her list, though, is Halloween. She loves the costumes and candy, the general spookiness of the whole night. Halloween is a night for strange things and even stranger people, and Parker feels perfectly at home with both. 

The others on the team don’t necessarily share her love of Halloween. She gets Nate’s reasons, mostly, in the way that someone who has never lost a child can understand someone who has. Nate tries, though, and over the years he’s even started to dress up to hand out candy. Eliot and Sophie just see it as another day, although Sophie’s flair for the dramatic means Parker can occasionally rope her into creating awesome costumes. 

Hardison, at least, joins her each year in dressing up and carving pumpkins. This is the year, though. Parker is going to get the whole team in the Halloween spirit.

Her plan starts with enlisting Hardison. “I need smoke machines.” She tells him, long before the first leaves start to turn. “Motion detectors that will trigger spooky noises. Ooh, and can we get some scary lighting?”

Hardison, to his credit, doesn’t even blink. “Sure thing, mama.” He says. “You gonna tell Eliot what you’re planning?”

“No.” Parker says with a smile. “I’m not. It’s a surprise.”

While Eliot’s surprise is in the works, Parker insists to the team that this year, they are going pumpkin picking together. So a few weeks before the big day, they head out to one of the farms Eliot uses to source local ingredients for the brew pub. This particular farm goes all out for fall - a huge pumpkin patch, a giant corn maze, and all the apples you can pick. 

“I thought we were getting maybe two pumpkins.” Eliot grouses as he pulls a wagon behind them. It’s already loaded with pumpkins, and Parker is still on the lookout for the one. 

“We’re having a carving contest.” She tells him, distracted by a pumpkin that looks quite promising. “We need more than two, duh.”

“I don’t trust you with a knife anymore than I trust you with a taser.” Eliot grumbles, but it’s his amused grumble and not his angry one, so Parker counts that as a win. 

The back room of the brew pub is covered in newspapers. Pumpkin guts litter the floor and table. Eliot is picking seeds out of the ooey gooey mess so he can toast them. They’re all spread out so they can’t see what the others are doing. Parker takes contests seriously. She might have carved a few practice pumpkins in the nights leading up to tonight. The winner gets to pick costumes for the whole team, after all. The stakes are high.

They set a time limit - mostly because they all get a little too competitive about these things - and are quickly approaching the end. When Nate’s phone alarm finally buzzes, a round of groans go up. The pumpkins are lined up against the far wall. Candles are placed inside and the lights are turned off.

Amy is enlisted as their judge. She looks between the pumpkins: Nate’s classic jack-o-lantern face, Eliot’s creepy alien carving, Sophie’s attempt at a sugar skull look, Hardison’s pumpkin that is puking it’s own guts, and Parker’s cannibalistic pumpkin munching down on a small pumpkin. 

“It’s a close call.” Amy says. “But I’m going to go with Eliot’s.” Arguments immediately erupt, and there might be an accusation or two thrown around, but in the end none of them can really dispute the fact that Eliot knows how to use a knife (and yes, it turns out there is a certain way to hold a knife when you’re carving a pumpkin). 

Halloween dawns dreary and grey, and Parker couldn’t be more excited. She’s got a lot planned and only a few short hours to get it done. Eliot’s with Nate, scouting out a potential job. Now it’s time to transform the brew pub.

Amy eyes the purple light bulbs and the fake cobwebs now strewn across the room. “Eliot might actually kill you.” She says. “Just promise me that you aren’t touching the kitchen.”

“Even I’m not that crazy.” Parker reassures her.

Hardison has gone all out on Halloween tech. He figured out how to get a couple of the tables to hover off the ground through the use of magnets and a remote control. Walking through any doorway will trigger creepy laughs. Spooky music drifts out of the speakers. Parker puts the finishing touches on her decorations and grins. The brew pub is sufficiently haunted.

Eliot walks in just before the lunch rush and immediately comes face to face with a skeleton. “Really, Parker?” He shouts. Then Hardison gets one of the tables to start hovering, and even Eliot has to admit that it looks pretty awesome and appropriately spooky.   
Halloween night is crazy and fun at the brew pub, especially since a few years ago when they started hosting Trick-or-Treating for all ages. Because, Parker firmly believes, some things you never outgrow. 

Eliot’s costume picks turn out to be a hit. “Food puns.” He said when Parker had asked what his pick would be. Nate - wearing devil horns and a giant egg costume - is a deviled egg. Sophie, with a beret that came from a French ministre d'État and two giant slices of bread, is French toast. Hardison’s just wearing a black shirt with an actual chip on his shoulder. Eliot, in a god-awful Hawaiian shirt and boxing gloves, is Hawaiian punch. And Parker - well, Parker went for a classic: Cereal killer.

It’s the best Halloween ever.


End file.
